LEBANON COUNTY, PA (WPMT) A drug suspect hoping to elude police submerges himself in ice cold waters of the Little Swatara Creek. It happened last Saturday, March 12 at about 7:31 am along the 1100 block of Houtztown Road in Bethel Township.
Pennsylvania State Police responded to a report of a suspicious person removing items from a vehicle that had moderate front end damage and hiding those items in a densely wooded area. The registration plate of the car had been removed. When police arrived, the suspect Brandon Phillip Mattson, 33, of Sinking Springs, fled further into the dense woods.
When police identified themselves, and called for Mattson to come out, Mattson went further into the woods. Police were able to track Mattson by his footprints in the snow. He was eventually found almost completely submerged with just his head exposed in the Little Swatara Creek. When he was pulled from the water, police discovered he was in possession of drug paraphernalia.
Mattson was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital due to lowered body temperature levels from the cold water of the Little Swatara Creek. State Police are investigating a possible hit and run involving the vehicle, a 1999 white Mitsubishi Eclipse. Anyone with any information on the case is asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police Jonestown barracks at (717) 865-2194.